Valian
One of the rarer lifeforms in the galaxy are of the Valian species, an asexually-reproducing race that numbers in the scant thousands. While very few in number, they remain one of the most widely-spread races and certainly one of the most-discussed among anthropological circles. They are most well-known for the automated ships that drift near the core worlds of the galaxy, hostile towards almost all technological creations including other valian technology and known for their advanced repair systems. Alliance conservation authorities are debating whether or not to declare the species to be 'critically endangered', which would make harming any of them a serious crime rather than minor assault. Very rarely are sentient races ever declared endangered, but as the remaining members of the race die out slowly but surely and their few remaining pockets of technology are burned away by time and hostile activity, it becomes very clear that the valian race is headed only towards its inevitable end. Biology A race that most resembles the lowly amoeba, Valians are best described as a 'completely black, vaguely humanoid bag of vital goop'. No scientific explanation can come close to describing them, save that their glassy-smooth outer skin holds a viscous substance. Whether this is blood or otherwise can not be determined... they are silicon-based, and seem to not need atmosphere to survive. Nevertheless, at a distance they appear entirely humanoid, with two legs and two arms, even a head with two glowing white eyes... but on approaching a Valian the slow 'sloshing' of their liquid bodies is audible when they move. If the skin is broken, their liquid bodies runs out like a terribly-bleeding wound, and if it does not congeal in time they can literally have their life drain from them, and perish. They are nearly useless in close combat without extensive armoring. Valians have no mouths or ears or noses, but can hear through their skin, smell things by contact, and are able to speak through either vibration of their skin to reproduce vocal sounds (assuming they even know language) or through use of their weak telepathic ability; Valians may speak to each other when touching, but normally communicate emotions and images in a range of ten meters to most any species. They prefer cybernetic implants allowing transmission of real words through radio, however, and so most are equipped with communications units. Valians feed on solar energy, and as such are awake and active whenever the sun or suns directly shine on them. At night or without the gleam of artificial light to power them, they become inert and only semi-aware. Space-travel is possible for them so long as the craft they are within is lit at all times; they would even be capable of unsuited EVA, if not for the fact that they require pressure. Valians reproduce asexually, but the actual process has yet to be observed... it is unknown precisely how. It has been suggested that they split as a cell does, as only one offspring, identical to the parent, is ever produced. This is further strengthened by the fact that after reproduction a Valian will seem to lose most knowledge that they possessed beyond survival skills and very deeply-rooted knowledge, such as the identity of extremely close friends or important tasks; it is because of this that what caused the decline of the species to remain a mystery. Valians live approximately 500 years, and tend to reproduce every fifty years. Due to the nature of Valian reproduction, it is also possible that a single parent splits into two separate offspring, but typically one of them is considered the parent. History Valians were once one of the most prolific races in all known history, an empire spanning such a large territory that the remains of their sweeping, smooth-walled infrastructure still stands strong on a few dozen worlds many light years apart. But for reasons still unknown, all of these buildings are empty walls, and have been for years beyond measure. Historians studying the species have concluded that Valians were a very chaotic race held together by some form of universal 'code of ethics'. A binding need passed from offspring to offspring to perform a duty to the species and ensure expansion. This can best be compared to the cells that they resemble. Developing at a slow rate, Valian kind reached the computer era at an incredibly late time in their history... at which point their society boomed. A sudden change in society occurred on their homeworld, and the knowledge once lost with every birth was now forever stored for use by each unit of Valian society (city-sized groups known as Nodes). At one point in time, during the Valian race's peak of space-exploration, a discovery was made that brought expansion to a shuddering halt. A change was made that caused a ripple of terror and fascination, and with it the union that had existed in the form of the Node Collective ceased to exist. The race collapsed into war and within a few short years they had nearly eradicated themselves and all of their infrastructure, leaving the survivors to decay in number until today, where they are considered to be endangered. Now only a few surviving colonies remain, ignorant of their past. Valian records now are near impossible to find, even those of family units, and the code of ethics that bound the species as one is now gone. Those remaining have sunk into a depressive state, seemingly unwilling to continue the species, unwilling to make notes on their lives, and unwilling to reproduce. And none know of what caused the terrible fall of their species. What discovery was made? No one knows for certain, but whatever it was began a short age of terror the galaxy had never seen before. Any hint at what had occurred was strategically and totally destroyed, entire databases of knowledge being wiped from history in a purge of technological secrets during the Valian Civil War. Whatever secret the Valian empire had uncovered, they had sought to entirely destroy, and even today their remaining technology seeks to protect the records that they could not purge. Automated Valian ships, ancient hulks that still function, guard their few remaining cities with devastating potency; a single Old-Age Valian ship is able to take on a fleet, easily wiping out attackers and healing its own hull with remarkable regenerative ability. The handful of successful attempts at breaking into secured Valian computer-networks has brought up only corrupted and incomplete data, faint garbled messages, and no sign of what discovery was made. Their homeworld itself is now a broken group of chunks of rock in the Kataan system. As of the time this record was made only a dozen Valians live in the area of Alliance space, primarily working in the field of agriculture; their ability to remain tireless so long as the sun shines is valuable to those that grow crops, and many Valians have a keen interest in the safety and proliferation of growing things. Technology At this time most of what the ordinary person knows about Valians is based around their legendary technology. While they were certainly only as advanced as the Alliance is now, they had made several breakthroughs that defined their kind from our own. These include: Regenerative Hull: While we indeed have this technology in some newer ships, the Valian people had perfected this. Ships remaining from their ancient empire still function at remarkable efficiency levels; most fighters can take a direct missile hit and be blown apart, only to surprise their attacker with quickly fusing back together as if it had never been hit. It has been observed that this reaction is MUCH better when in direct sunlight from a star in a system; in deep space they barely heal themselves, but in orbit of a star they become nearly invincible. Their ships seem to draw much of their power from solar energy as do Valians themselves. Rift Drive: This is a technology that the Valian people were likely forced to use, as Jump Drive tech is unique to our own time and people. Rift technology is different from ordinary travel in that it is based entirely around tearing open a dimensional portal with the use of a 'Rift-weapon' that most large Valian ships seem equipped with. Ships may then pass through these 'Rifts' in space and travel vast distances almost instantly, though the destination can be off by some distance and it is unknown precisely by what means it is accomplished. Along with the ability to open massive portals in space using this Rift Weapon, Valian ships are known to use it in battle to devastating effect. They use a sequence of random mathematical equations in a certain order as coordinates, and open a rift into a chaotic mess going nowhere in particular. Any ship sucked into this 'Chaos Rift' will be brought down to bits and pieces and flung all over the galaxy at random. Most automated Valian ships are known to do this to themselves to avoid capture, destroying themselves utterly to prevent others from learning their secrets. The 'Breath of Life' Repair Beam: This technology is certainly one of the most hindering to the study of the Valian species; many of their ancient support ships are equipped with repair beams that far exceed our own capabilities. By drawing close to a target they spray brilliant energy over them, and through one's own eyes it can be seen that the target's hull will knit itself together in mere seconds as though it were living flesh, Valian ship or not. This not only works with ships, but buildings on a planet, space stations, and has even in one case been known to heal a fighter-pilot's broken leg in his cockpit. This is the last known technology that the Valian people developed in their empire before their fall; it is speculated that had the empire not fallen it would have gone on to create even greater things. Investigation into aspects of the radiant power are ongoing. Lore Node: This piece of technology is the objective of any aspiring researcher; a computer module no larger than a cigarette box that stores vast trilllions of terabytes of computer data. These modules were carried by Valians and stored their memories directly, allowing them to keep the things they knew in life and pass it on to each of their offspring. A single drive like this posessed so much data over so many generations of Valian life that to go through one with a computer today would take well over a century. Alas, those that have been recovered are not as useful as it would be imagined; all data is encrypted, and there is no actual language to be translated. And even after decoding, one often finds large portions of data erased by the owner before their death. To date the largest thing translated from Valian telepathic impulse into ordinary speech was a chilling cry of despair, with unknown context and subject: "...like a thousand suns wrought of ash and darkness..." Category:Species Category:Poly- and metamorphic sentient species Category:Mineral-based sentient species